Dominican Police and their discrimination against homosexuals

Dominican Law Enforcement police officers.

After all the time living in the Dominican Republic, the outrageous cases of discrimination against homosexuals haven't been a big surprise to me. The anti-LGBT culture is something we as Dominicans witness in our everyday lives, affecting friends and acquaintances that happen to be part of that community, either it happens because of the country's religious background (Catholicism being the main religion with a 68.9% of the population professing to be Roman Catholic) or simply because of any other cultural aspects. But in spite of that, knowing the state in which my country currently is (some kind of shameful, pitiful condition which reflects contempt for human rights and takes possession of underdeveloped minds) and me seeing it as not acceptable, I tried hard to accept and understand that it was just part of the culture. As much as I wanted it to change, one can't simply wash the whole country's mind and make them have a different perspective or point of view on a subject. This state of acknowledging what my culture was in took a complete twist when while watching the local news this afternoon my ears caught the words in spanish: '' La Policía Nacional indicó que la instuición tiene una ley interna que prohibe el ingreso de homosexuales en sus filas" (read whole story here), which, summed up means ''The Dominican National Police says their internal laws prohibit homosexuals and lesbians to be part of the police ranks''. This implies that as soon as they discover or you publicly declare your sexuality that isn't what they'd call "conventional" then you should pack your bags and just leave. Did I say "should"? It's a must; it's a law that according to them, MUST be fulfilled. 

I don't know if I had ever felt any more incensed about anything in my whole life. The words stroked me and echoed for a while in my head while my mouth dropped and my lips formed a perfect ''o''. I knew the people of my country (the majority) thought of gays as people who were in this sort of ''deviant'', "unholy"condition, but I never ever thought we'd go to the extreme of making laws to not accept them into public institutions such as our National Police corp (equivalent of Law enforcement in the United States). Where did the equality go? How about the people whose desire is to do their duty and work in our Nation's favor? How about forgetting whichever sexuality an individual has and just accept him/her as the PERSON he/she is? Will they ever start to see homosexuals as people that have the traits, skills and the will to serve our country regardless their sexual orientation? I want to encourage, not just Dominicans but everyone who see this as a MAJOR human rights violation, to try to let people know that the individual (along with their capacity, knowledge...) is all that matters and that we should respect the decisions they've taken about how to live their lives, as well as their inborn orientation. Maybe this will make this country, and our world, change for the better. And whoever you are out there, struggling with discrimination against LGBTs in an underdeveloped country (where is more likely to happen than in major countries due to cultural lag) hang in there, and know that there's people that still value individuals for what they are and not their sexual, racial, religious and economical condition. And as the Pope Francis has recently stated "Who am I to judge?".